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Fingerprinting Requirements for Alabama Licenses

In the fingerprinting business, Alabama is known as a “hybrid” state. This means that some departments in the state government have a contract with a company for fingerprinting services, but other departments and agencies do not have a preferred company for fingerprinting services.

Some other states only use a specific company for all fingerprinting services; these states are referred to as “closed” states. States that have no contracts but instead accept fingerprinting from any company are “open” states. Florida, for example, is an open state where we transmit fingerprint files electronically.

Getting back to Alabama, there is a lot of confusion about where to go to get fingerprinted for licensing. There are five departments that have contracts with Gemalto/Thales. Those departments are the Department of Human Resources (DHR), the Alabama Board of Nursing, the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE), the Alabama Real Estate Commission (AREC), and the Alabama Department of Insurance (ALDOI). Applicants needing fingerprinting services when applying to one of those agencies must go to a Fieldprint site if they reside in Alabama. If outside of Alabama, the applicant can get fingerprinted wherever it is convenient and send the FD-258 cards to the agency for processing.

Similarly, if someone living in Alabama is applying to another state, we can provide fingerprint cards that the applicant will send to that state. Many of our clients get FD-258 cards to send to other states. California, Ohio, and Maryland are common destination states, but we’ve had clients sending cards to most other states. As previously mentioned, when the destination state is Florida, we transmit the fingerprint file electronically to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).

If you are applying for a license to a department or agency NOT listed above as one of the agencies contracted with Fieldprint, we can print FD-258 cards for you to submit with your application. We do this often for doctors, physician assistants, and locksmiths. The following is a list of license types that accept fingerprint cards when required for Alabama licensing.

  • Physician
  • Dentist
  • Physician Assistant
  • Anesthesiologist Assistant
  • Chiropractor
  • Pharmacy Technician
  • Locksmith
  • Alarm System Sales and Service
  • Liquor Sales
  • Massage Therapist

In some cases, the fingerprint cards we provide to clients are sent to the agency along with their application. In other cases, they send their fingerprint cards to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) with instructions to provide the results to the agency they are applying to. Clients should follow the instructions for their particular application process.

If you need fingerprint cards for your license application, set an appointment with us for your fingerprinting session. We will capture your prints and print them to a card that has your personal information printed in the header section. We provide two cards at the end of the session.

Use the button below to set your appointment for fingerprinting services.

Reference: Understanding FD-258 Cards

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